In many of the cases where I've done this, I've had a worse experience. With one company, I wanted to return the product because it was defective but was never

In many of the cases where I've done this, I've had a worse experience. With one company, I wanted to return the product because it was defective but was never able to actually contact anyone. With another, it arrived broken and I was never able to get the company to replace it. In either scenario, Amazon makes it easy to correct the problem. I want to support manufacturers more directly, but their customer service has continued to be lacking.